ATLANTIC CITY 



AS A 



^Anter J^esort 



Comprising Meteorological Statistics concerning Temperature, 

Humidity, Amount of Rainfall, etc.; Compiled from 

Official Reports and Local Observations of 

the United States Signal Service. 



Also the Sanitary and Social Features of Atlantic City; its 
Hotels and Other Attractions ; Testimonials of Prominent 
Physicians as to the Value of the Climate; Sugges- 
tions to Invalids regarding Hygiene, etc., etc. 



BY B. A. BLUNDON, 

Sergeant Signal Service, U. S. A. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

LINEAWEAVER AND WALLACE, PRINTERS, 
No. 32 South Fourth Street. 




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PREFACE. 



The following pamphlet includes the most important matter con- 
tained in one written a few years ago by a well-known physician of 
Atlantic City. It embraces also a fuller account of the town itself — 
its hotels, water supply, drainage, sailing, fishing, objects of interest. 
drives and other attractions for tourists and pleasure-seekers, as well 
as for invalids. The tables and other meteorological statistics have 
been carefully gone over by me and supplemented in several instances 
by the figures of more recent years. They are drawn from the official 
records of the War Department and of the Signal Station here. I am 
indebted to several persons and particularly to Mr. John F. Hall, of 
the Atlantic City Times, for assistance in preparing this work. 

B. A. BLUNDON. 

United States Signal Station, ' 

Atlantic City, N. /., 

February 2&t/i, 1885. 



ATLANTIC CITY 



AS A 



WINTER RESORT 



[HE growing fashion of visiting coast resorts in winter is of 
European origin, but has already taken a firm hold in the 
United States. In England and other transatlantic countries, 
the great benefits derived from a change of climate during the winter 
and spring have long been recognized by physicians, and the growth 
of winter health resorts has been a natural consequence. 

In this country, till recently, Florida has been the principal refuge 
for invalids during the cold season. Its great distance, however, 
from the large cities and centres of population in the North has pre- 
vented many from availing themselves of its advantages. Atlantic 
City, New Jersey, is vastly more accessible, and offers many attrac- 
tions as a winter resort. 

This place had long since achieved fame as a summer residence, its 
fine beach affording excellent bathing, its remarkably dry and bracing 
air attracting throngs of invalids and convalescents, and its proximity 
and extraordinary railroad facilities further contributing to its rapid 
growth and popularity. The doctors gradually became aware of the 
fact that the marked healing qualities of the air were as active and 
efficient in winter as in summer. It was discovered also that so far 
from being colder here in winter than in Philadelphia and other 
neighboring cities, it was actually warmer upon the average, and 
very decidedly so during the prevalence of a sea breeze. 

Apart from climatic considerations, the city itself has many inter- 
esting features. It is a regularly laid out and handsomely built city 
with a permanent population of eight thousand. All the essentials of 
city life are at hand. There are miles of beautiful streets, stores of 
all kinds, street cars in constant operation, schools, churches, circu- 
lating libraries, and excellent markets, which make it a city in fact as 
well as in name. Many of the hotels have been constructed in the 
most modern style and furnished with every appliance necessary for 
comfort in summer or winter. Open grates, steam radiators and 
stoves maintain an uniform temperature; all the surroundings are 

(5) 



bright and cheerful. The hotels are located on the ocean side of the 
town. From glass-enclosed sun galleries invalid visitors may enjoy 
the magnificent prospect and promenade, safe from too great exposure 
upon the colder winter days. 

One's enjoyment of out-door exercise is all that could be desired., 
from walking, sailing or driving in the pure bracing air. The Inlet is 
the rendezvous of those who have a penchant for sailing, gunning or 
fishing. A broad plank walk skirts the whole ocean front of the town 
for two miles or more, so that pedestrians may watch the chasing bil- 
lows while they take their constitutionals with dry feet. 

At low tide a splendid ocean drive extends down the strand past 
Chelsea Beach, a new and very exclusive suburb, and the Elephant 
Bazaar at South Atlantic to Longport, at the southern extremity, a 
distance of ten miles. A longer drive is across the bridge and 
meadow turnpike to the mainland. There a smooth country road 
extends a dozen miles or more from Leed's Point above to Somers' 
Point below, through thriving villages, past attractive country homes, 
overlooking charming meadow and ocean scenery. 



ABSENCE OF MALARIA. 

The following extract from a medical article,* quoted in the pam- 
phlet previously referred to, is important testimony as to the absence 
of malaria here : 

"The samly beaches on the New Jersey coast are generally free 
from malaria, except at points where freshwater streams empty into 
the ocean. Professor Alfred L. Loomis, of New York, in a recent 
lecture, discussed the subject of malaria with his accustomed ability. 
He said : ' Salt-water marshes are, as a rule, especially free from ma- 
laria ; but mix salt and fresh water, as on some of the New Jersey 
marshes, and you have the conditions for generating the poison. 
Marshes that rest on a substratum of sand are not so malarial as those 
that rest on limestone, clay, or mud.' 

"Atlantic City, which, by reason of its rapid growth and promi- 
nence among health resorts, is now attracting to an unusual degree the 
critical attention of sanitarians, is fortunate in being surrounded by a 
plenitude of unmixed salt water, and in being founded upon the 
driest of sand. So far, therefore, as concerns malaria, that subtle, in- 
tangible poison, which defies alike the microscope and the reagents of 
the chemist, but produces in some unknown way the periodical fevers, 
Atlantic City seems to be highly favored. Intermittent and remit- 
tent are strangers to the regular residents, and it is the constant expe- 
rience of malarial patients coming here that they obtain rapid relief 

* " The Sanitary Condition of our Sea-shore Health Resorts," by Boardman Reed, 
M. D., Medical and Surgical Reporter, July 9, 1881, page 54. 



with far less medication than at home, often especially in the case of 
children, with no medication at all." 



WATER SUPPLY AND DRAINAGE. 



Atlantic City now has a two-fold water supply. Nearly even' 
house has a cemented cistern or wooden tank in which water distilled 
from the clouds is preserved pure and sweet for use when required. 
When carefully kept, and especially when filtered, rain water is 
entirely reliable, and usually affords an adequate supply for drinking 
and culinary purposes. 

But water works of the most elaborate character were built, and 
spring water introduced from the mainland, seven miles distant, in 
June, 1882. A standpipe 135 feet high, having a capacity of 500,000 
gallons, ensures at all times an abundant supply for every purpose, 
including the sprinkling of streets and extinguishing of fires. 

This place promises to be hereafter the best drained city on the 
Atlantic coast. Years ago provision was made for getting rid of the 
surface water, and since the compulsory filling up of low lots, there 
has been little ground for complaint in this respect. All garbage has 
long been and still is removed daily in closely covered barrels. 
Other refuse and excreta have for some years past been stored tempo- 
rarily in carefully constructed vaults with excellent ventilating ar- 
rangements, in the case of the leading hotels, and removed at frequent 
intervals entirely beyond the city limits during the latter part of the 
night usually, and by the odorless excavator apparatus. 

An improved system of underground sewerage, adopted by tine 
Board of Health and City Council after a very careful study of various 
rival plans, is now assured to the town. Work was begun upon this 
in the fall of 1883, and is now, under the direction of a New York 
company, progressing rapidly toward completion. Early in the 
present season (1885) it is expected to be in operation. 

By this system the sewage flows through straight pipes to a central 
reservoir. It is thence pumped several miles away and there filtered 
by a patent process, the solid portions being converted into phos- 
phates by the addition of certain chemicals, and the purified liquid 
permitted to empty into an arm of the sea behind the town. 

A similar system has for some years been in successful operation at 
Pullman, near Chicago, 111., where, with less grades than have been 
provided for Atlantic City, it has given the utmost satisfaction. 
Without such a comprehensive method, including a pumping station 
and the filtering process, the flat beaches of the New Jersey coast can- 
not, in the opinion of good sanitary authorities, be successfully and 
safely drained. To empty the crude sewage into the ocean, as is 
done at some seacoast towns, is objectionable in many ways. 



8 



A STUDY OF THE CLIMATE FROM THE 
PHYSICIAN'S STANDPOINT. 

The following is a reproduction with some necessary emendations 
of an article contributed by Dr. Boardman Reed to the Philadelphia 
Medical Times of December 18, 1880, entitled "Winter Health 
Resorts; The Climate of Atlantic City and its effects on Pulmonary 
Diseases." It was subsequently reprinted, together with several other 
medical articles by the same writer, in a pamphlet entitled "Atlantic 
City as a Winter Health Resort," numerous copies of which were sent 
to physicians in the northern cities. The tables have been carefully 
verified and extended so as to bring them more nearly down to 
date. 

"Where shall we send our invalids for a change of air in win- 
ter? This is a practical question which is becoming, year by year, 
more important to busy physicians, particularly in the great cities of 
the North. There are certain chronic diseases for which a pure and 
invigorating air, and especially a climate which will tempt the pa- 
tients out of doors, are highly desirable. For many cases a change to 
such an air offers the best hope of cure, or even of amelioration. 

" Florida has been much in vogue lately as a winter-resort, and 
undoubtedly suits numerous patients well ; but it is too far away, in- 
volving a long and tiresome journey. The distance from home and 
friends, and the impossibility of conferring in an emergency with the 
usual medical attendant, are serious inconveniences, and the warm 
and enervating character of the Southern climate unfits it for a large 
class of diseases altogether. 

"Colorado and Minnesota are even farther away, and their cli- 
mates, however tonic and useful, are so cold that invalids there can 
live very little out of doors during the winter ; and if they are to be 
kept prisoners in close heated rooms it might almost as well be in 
their own homes. 

"Atlantic City, New Jersey, a place most favorably located as re- 
gards convenience of access, being ninety minutes' ride from Phila- 
delphia by the West Jersey and Camden and Atlantic Railroads, and 
only four hours from New York by the Pennsylvania Railroad and its 
branch lines, possesses certain physical advantages which are well 
worth considering. It has been twenty years or more since physicians 
began sending patients here in winter. First only now and then a 
courageous invalid ventured here at this season, but their numbers 
steadily increased. The experiment proved so successful in hastening 
the convalescence from acute disease, in improving a large class of 
chronic affections, and especially in arresting numerous cases of in- 
cipient as well as confirmed consumption, that within the last few 
years the travel to the place in winter has reached very considerable 



proportions, and the numerous thoroughly heated winter hotels- 
some of which are as sumptuously furnished and as luxuriously con- 
ducted as the leading houses at the summer-resorts — are crowded 
with invalids, convalescents, and wearied society people through all 
the months from February on. 

"Actual experience has demonstrated that sea air is as valuable in 
winter as in summer. It also bears out the statistics which prove that 
the climate of Atlantic City is superior to that of most sea-coast towns, 
being drier, more equable, and, considering the latitude, unusually 

mild. 

"The city is situated in latitude 39 22', on an island ten miles 
long and averaging about half a mile wide. This is separated from 
the°mainland at either end by broad bays or inlets, which are con- 
nected by a narrow arm of the sea called ' The Thoroughfare.' There 
is no body of fresh water nearer than the Delaware river, distant 
about sixty miles, and the salt-water bays to the landward side are 
nearly always open, ice seldom forming, except for a short time 
occasionally in the severest winters. 

"Another peculiarity of the location is that all the winds from the 
landward must pass for long distances — hundreds of miles in some 
directions — over a very dry and porous sandy soil, upon which snow 
rarely lies for any time. These winds, including those from the 
north, north-west, west, and south-west, are therefore to some extent 
both dried and warmed in their passage. 

"INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM. 

" Though the coast of Southern New Jersey has a general direction 
from north-east to south-west, the beach at Atlantic City trends more 
to the westward, so that it faces almost directly southward. There- 
fore south as well as east winds are sea breezes here, and both blow 
across the Gulf Stream, which, by the way, exercises considerable 
influence upon the climate of this part of the coast. 

" Mr. C. P. Patterson, Superintendent of the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey Office at Washington has kindly furnished me 
with a large map indicating accurately the course of the Gulf Stream, 
and with some interesting facts concerning it. 

" This map shows at a glance that the heated waters of the tropics, 
pouring through the space between Cuba and Florida, flow in a north- 
easterly direction along the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, diffus- 
ing themselves as they go, until from a compact stream less than fifty 
miles wide, they have become opposite Chesapeake Bay a broad 
expanse upwards of four hundred miles in width. This really includes 
numerous parallel or slightly diverging currents of very warm water 
with overflow currents of a somewhat lower temperature. One of 
these overflow currents approaches within sixty-five miles of Atlantic 
City, while it is one hundred and ten miles from Sandy Hook. The 



10 

principal current is farther away, being one hundred and thirty-five 
miles from Atlantic City, one hundred and eighty-five miles from 
Sandy Hook, and about the same distance from Long Branch and 
Montauk Point. 

"But the exceptional mildness of this climate may be attributed 
to the peculiar course of the Gulf Stream in this vicinity as much as 
to its proximity. The innermost current, according to the map re- 
ceived from the Coast Survey office, has a direction opposite Atlantic 
City of east-north-east, but turns more and more to the eastward till 
in latitude 40 — that of Philadelphia — it bears nearly due east. The 
main current turns more abruptly, and a little north of latitude 38 , 
some distance to the southward of Atlantic City, has a course directly 
eastward. Our south, south-east, and east winds, then, must all pass 
for three hundred to five hundred miles at least over more or less 
heated water which has come directly from the Gulf of Mexico. Our 
only ocean breezes not affected in this way are those from the north- 
east. But for places farther up the coast, particularly those north of 
latitude 40 , the case is different. Neither their north-east nor east 
winds can be appreciably modified by the Gulf Stream. Their south 
and south-east winds may be favorably influenced to some extent, but 
less than are the same winds at Atlantic City, since they pass over a 
much larger surface of cold water after crossing the Gulf Stream. 



METEOROLOGICAL STATISTICS. 

Temperature, Humidity and Barometrical Pressure at Atlantic 

City, New Jersey. 



Mcnths, i83o. 


Mean 
Temperature. 


Range of 
Temperature. 


Mean 
Humidity. 


Mean 
Barometer. 




41.1 
38.2 
40.1 


Max 

64 
7i 
7-> 


Min. 

'3 

11 
18 


79-3 
7-I-4 
71.9 


30.189 
30.129 










Months, 1881. 










March 


3°-3 
38.4 






83.8 
74.6 


3o-i73 
29-7.35 




Months, 1882. 












37-9 
41.4 


53-7 
65.5 


20.3 

SI. 


78.5 
73-5 


30-I39 
30.077 



"The mean temperature for January, February, March, and De- 



II 



in 



ccmber, the four coldest months of the year, was, in 1879, 34.7' 
1878, 36.8 ; and in 1877, 35. o°. 

" The prevailing winds in winter are those from the west and north- 
west, which are usually dry and bracing. The east and south winds, 
which often blow for days at a time, are warmer and more humid. 
North-east winds, which are unpleasant, usually prevail for two or 
three days at the time of the equinoctial storms, but are infrequent 
during the remainder of the year. 

" Observations taken at my office, in the centre of the town, at 
7 A.M., 12 M., and 6 and 10 p. m., show that in December, 1879, 
there were twenty-six days during which the thermometer did not fall 
below 32 , the freezing point ; also that there were only two days in 
the same month when the thermometer did not indicate at noon a 
temperature above 40 ; and that there were ten days upon which it 
was not below 50° at the same hour. During the January following 
(1880) there were twenty-four days during which the mercury never 
fell below the freezing point at any hour, and only two days during 
which it went below 30 . It was only once in the same month lower 
than 40 at noon, and only three times lower than 45 ° at the same 
hour. On nineteen of the thirty-one days the thermometer stood at 
50 or above at mid-day. 

"These mid-day temperatures are obviously more important than 
averages, for it is in the daytime that invalids take their airing out of 
doors. 



Annual Amount of Rainfall in Inches at the Principal Cities and Sia~ 
tions on the Atlantic Coast for the years ended June 30, 1S7S, 1879, 
1880, 1 88 1, 1882. Also the Mean Annual Amount since the Sta- 
tions were Established. 



Station. 



Atlantic City, N. J. 
Barnegat, N.J. 
Cape May, N.J. . 
Charleston, S. C. . 
Jacksonville, Fia. , 
Newport, R. I. . , 
New Orleans, La. , 
New York City . 
Norfolk, Va. . , 
Portland, Me. . . 
Sandy Hook, N. J, 
Wilmington, N. C. 



1878. 


1879. 


1880. 


1881. 


1S82. 


42.90 


40.60 


44-23 


55.48 


39-55 


52-35 


49.38 


47- 2 7 


60.13 


58.85 


47-99 


42.44 


50.92 


60.54 


40.41 


68.62 


64.33 


44-47 


48.8 » 


48.63 


52.11 


51.62 


54-99 


66.87 


48.69 


55.84 


52.20 


4°-75 


61 -45 


44-52 


73-3' 


58.29 


60.84 


6733 


58.22 


42.68 


43.68 


33-24 


49.50 


35.60 


66.28 


44-44 


34-54 


54.48 


46.49 


45.61 


41 .10 


3824 


45.02 


42.99 


54.86 


60.37 


46.75 


53'4 


46.20 


84.12 


50.90 


50.13 


53-35 


46.56 



Mean annual amount 

since Establishment 

of Station. 



40.24 
50.20 
46.70 
60.91 
55-74 

599 s 
65.63 
42.67 
51-43 
39-33 
52.05 
57-28 



8 years. 



10 
11 
10 

6 
11 
1 1 
11 
10 



This table of rainfall as enlarged by making it cover a series of five years, shows that Portland, 
Me., alone of all the cities and stations mentioned, had during that period a less rainfall than Atlan- 
tic City. This is an extraordinary fact. Atlantic City has less rainfall than other resorts on the 
coast so far as the official records show, and has thus a strong basis for its claim to exceptional 
dryness. 



12 

"The dryness of this climate, as compared with other seaside re- 
sorts, is best shown by the statistics of the rainfall, which is less here 
than at any other place on the coast, as appears from the foregoing 
table. The readings of the hygrometers at the different stations are 
not so significant, since at some of them, including Atlantic City, the 
instruments are located so near to the beach, and at so low an eleva- 
tion above the sea level (less than thirteen feet here) as to be affected 
by the spray, during strong winds off the water, and by occasional 
morning mists, which do not extend back into the town. 

Annual Amount of Wind in Miles at Various Stations for a Series 

of Five Years. 



Stations. 


1880. 


1881. 


1882. 


1883. 


1884. 


Average Vearly 
Amount. 


Atlantic City, N.J. . . 
Barnegat City , N. J. . . 
Cape May, N.J. . . . 
Sandy Hook, N. J. . . 


87.070 
126 71 S 

134-455 
124.278 


83.581 
116 642 

129.755 
108.471 


86.498 
117.564 
123.041 
122.601 


80.769 
128.934 
128.330 


75-2.32 
125. c8i 

I34-584 


82.630 
122.988 

i3°-°55 
118.450 



This wind table is a new one entirely. A foot-note at this point in the former pamphlet men- 
tioned briefly the figures showing that during the year 1879 there was very much less wind at Atlan- 
tic City than at the neighboring stations on either side. The above table shows in a striking man- 
ner by the statistics of five years that there is on the average greatly less wind here than at any 
station on the New Jersey coast. This is especially important as bearing upon the fitness of the 
place as a winter resort, since high winds in winter mean trying weather, and the less the velocity 
of the wind, other things being equal, the safer and more enjoyable is exercise out of doors. 



"After all, however, it is with climates as with medicines, — trust- 
worthy evidence as to what they have accomplished is the most val- 
uable. With regard to nervous, rheumatic, gouty, dyspeptic, and 
various other chronic ailments (including most of those peculiar to 
women), which are usually found to be benefited here in the summer, 
equal benefit may be expected in the winter. Convalescents from 
acute disease, or from surgical operations, nearly always improve re- 
markably upon being removed to this place from the large cities. 

"As to diseases of the respiratory organs, I have had personal knowl- 
edge of many patients suffering from various forms of such affections 
who have made trials of this climate in winter. The bronchial and 
laryngeal cases have, as a rule, improved, some of them very decid- 
edly, though there have been exceptions. The consumptives who 
were in the third stage, or in any stage with evidences of actively 
progressing disease of the lung and decided hectic, have only excep- 
tionally been benefited. Those, however, in the pretubercular or in- 
cipient stage, and those even in the advanced stages where the de- 
structive process has been advancing slowly, have often experienced 
very marked improvement. In a considerable proportion of the 
cases of these latter classes the disease has been apparently arrested, 
and some of them seem to be cured. 



*3 

" Detailed reports of the eases I have treated at Atlantic City would 
fully bear out the foregoing general conclusions, but would unduly 
extend this paper and necessitate the exclusion of several reports I 
have received from prominent Philadelphia physicians concerning the 
effect of this climate upon their patients, in winter especially. Some 
of these physicians have been sending patients hither for more than 
twenty years. Their testimony is more valuable than mine, and can 
not be impugned on the ground of partiality. 

" It is a significant fact that pneumonia and bronchitis are of in- 
frequent origin here, and when they do occur the patients almost in- 
variably recover. I have not known an uncomplicated attack of 
either disease to prove fatal. 

REPORTS FROM PHYSICIANS. 

" The reports from physicians above referred to were received in 
response to inquiries recently sent to them. Many others wrote brief 
apologies, not having the notes or the leisure to tabulate the results 
of their experience as I had requested. Only one physician objected 
to the climate either for bronchitis or early phthisis. 

" Dr. Laurence Turnbull writes : ' The number of cases of phthisis 
that I have sent to Atlantic City have been few in the last stages, as I 
found they were not improved by a residence at the seashore, dry 
even as it is,' adding that a few cases in those stages were aggravated, 
but goes on to say, ' I have been much pleased with its influence on 
the first stages of phthisis, asthma,, laryngitis, bronchitis, and nasal 
catarrh, when all ordinary means have failed in the city, by causing 
improvement in the appetite, assisting the digestion, and giving a 
healthier tone to the skin. In convalescence from catarrhal pneu- 
monia and typhoid fever the results have been most gratifying. In 
certain forms of otitis media purulenta 1 do ?wt find the air of Atlantic 
very beneficial, and in many cases diseases of the ear are caused by 
exposure of that organ to the waves. In strumous diseases of eyes, 
joints, limbs, etc., I have found the change to Atlantic City, if per- 
sisted in for several seasons, of permanent benefit.' 

"Dr. Thomas J. Yarrow writes: 'It has not been my practice, 
as a rule, to advise patients suffering with tuberculous and other 
diseases of the respiratory passages to sojourn at the seaside. Excep- 
tionally, I have had them go to Atlantic City, and have known cases 
of incipient phthisis, chronic bronchitis, asthma, and laryngitis to 
improve in that location. My experience of late is inducing me to 
recommend a larger number of such cases to reside at Atlantic City.' 

"Dr. Thomas G. Morton thus bears testimony: 'I have been in 
the habit of sending to the shore at Atlantic City many patients, more 
especially surgical cases, but a large number also of those with lung 
affections, and especially those having a (hereditary) tubercular dis- 
position, and I think especially such cases have been vastly benefited 
by the sojourn.' 



14 

" Dr. James Darrach, of Germantown, writes : ' Have sent several 
cases of autumnal catarrh to Atlantic City, and think without excep- 
tion they were benefited, two of them being certainly exempt from 
these attacks while at the shore. The only case of slow convales- 
cence from pneumonia died at Atlantic City. This was about twenty- 
three years ago. A case of obstinate general bronchitis was cured in 
about ten days. A case of what I supposed to be tubercular laryngitis 
was very much benefited, and subsequently recovered. I have also 
had other cases of obstinate catarrh which returned well after a so- 
journ at Atlantic City.' 

" Dr. Eugene P. Bernardy reports as follows: ' With but one excep- 
tion, all my cases of phthisis, both in the early and late stages, 
amounting to twelve in all, have been decidedly benefited by a sojourn 
at Atlantic City, and one case positively cured, — that is, as far as 
human ear can ascertain. Of the three cases of convalescence from 
pneumonia all were decidedly benefited. In a child suffering from 
chronic pneumonia the lung in a few weeks was almost entirely cleared 
up. In bronchial affections (chronic) I have seen no permanent bene- 
fit in any of the six cases I have sent there ; all benefited while at 
the seashore, but a few months after their return relapsed. The case 
of phthisis cured had been examined by myself and Dr. Hall in Phila- 
delphia, and while at the seashore examined by Dr. L. Turnbull. 
We all diagnosed incipient phthisis. This was nearly six years ago. 
On her return she had gained forty pounds, and has remained well ' 
ever since.' 

"Dr. John H. Packard says, referring to Atlantic City, 'I can 
only say that I frequently advise convalescents to go there, and that 
it is a very common thing with me to be asked by patients whether 
it would not do them good to spend a week or two there. I do not 
now recollect any case that has been wholly without benefit from that 
climate, and could adduce many that have gained great advantage 

from it.' 

"Dr. D. Murray Cheston writes: 'I cannot say how many cases 
of pulmonary or bronchial troubles I have sent there, but the general 
result has been most satisfactory. The cases were all sent in the late 
winter or early spring months, and have invariably returned im- 
proved.' 

"Prof. J. M. Da Costa writes briefly as follows: 'I have sent 
too few patients with pulmonary disease to Atlantic City to have 
the data to answer your questions. Some who were in a run- 
down condition and affected with chronic bronchial catarrh did very 

well.' 

" Dr. Ellwood Wilson writes that in the summer months he does 
not think patients with fully developed phthisis improve by a pro- 
tracted residence at Atlantic City, but adds, 'During the winter 
months— say from October to July— I regard it as a very favorable 
locality for consumptive patients.' 



i5 

" Dr. R. T- Levis writes that his practice (being almost exclusively 
surgical) ' is" not of a kind to furnish experience with regard to the 
beneficial influence of Atlantic City in pulmonary affections,' but that 
he has 'a good opinion of its dry and mild climate.' 

"Dr. James J. Levick has not sent any cases of phthisis, but has 
sent ' several cases of laryngeal and bronchial irritation and one or 
two cases of hay asthma, which improved greatly while at Atlantic 
City.' He adds, 'The cases which have derived most benefit, how- 
ever, and of which I have sent not a few in the late winter months, 
have been patients after typhoid fever, — patients whose nervous systems 
have been much disturbed, persons who have needed brain rest, etc' 

"Dr. William H. Bennett, in describing his experience par- 
ticularly at the Children's Seashore House and at the Seaside 
House for Invalid Women, says: 'My experience of the effects 
of a sojourn at Atlantic City upon those suffering from pulmonary 
diseases has been confined to what I have seen among transient vis- 
itors during the summer months of the past seven years. I have had 
little or no experience of the effects either of a prolonged stay or of 
a stay in winter. My patients were, with the exception of a majority 
of those suffering from phthisis, nearly all children. I have had not 
less than a hundred cases of acute bronchitis, nearly all of which ran 
a milder and shorter course than similar cases do in Philadelphia. A 
few, perhaps ten, cases of subacute bronchitis, which had remained 
stationary in the city for some time, rapidly recovered at the seashore. 
Three or four cases of chronic bronchitis, with emphysema and occa- 
sional severe attacks of asthma, greatly improved ; but about an equal 
number showed no change. Two or three cases of tardy convales- 
cence from pneumonia made much more rapid progress towards re- 
covery after their removal to the seashore. Two cases of empyema 
with external fistulce greatly improved. About twenty cases of 
phthisis have been under my care at Atlantic City. These have been 
in all stages of the disease. A very few, I recall but three, derived 
no benefit ; all the others improved in general health. In some, even 
of the advanced cases, the improvement was marked. In many of 
the cases the cough became less troublesome and the breathing less 
labored. Nearly all slept better. Hectic frequently disappeared en- 
tirely, or was greatly lessened.' " 

A DRY AND BRACING CLIMATE. 

STRONG LETTERS FROM TWO PROMINENT PHYSICIANS. 

Dr. William Pepper's report of his experience in sending patients 
to Atlantic City was not received until after the original publication 
of the above article, but was given a place in the former pamphlet. It 
is emphatic testimony from a recognized authority in pulmonary 
diseases : 



i6 

Philadelphia, iSii Spruce Street. 

" My Dear Doctor Reed : — In reply to your question as to my 
experience with the climate of Atlantic City in cases of diseases of the 
chest, I would make the following remarks : 

" I am more strongly convinced each year of the advantage in the 
treatment of such cases possessed by dry, bracing climates as compared 
with moist, sedative climates. Undoubtedly there are certain special 
types of disease that do better in the latter, but it has seemed to me 
that the benefit derived amounts to palliation or relief, and not to 
radical cure. One difficulty attaching to the residence of invalids in 
dry, bracing climates is the fact that a far greater degree of attention 
to personal hygiene and systematic regimen is required. There are 
fewer risks of renewed congestions or increased catarrhs in a moist 
sedative climate, it is true ; but on the other hand, if the patient is 
carefully instructed by his medical adviser as to the proper mode of 
living in a dry, bracing climate, and is willing to faithfully attend to 
all the details of such instructions, there is in my judgment a far 
higher degree of actual, permanent benefit to be secured in the great 
majority of cases. 

"This applies especially to patients who are still in the curable 
stage of consumption, for in a large proportion of cases of phthisis 
there is an early stage when no true tuberculous disease exists, and 
when a cure is possible under the combined influence of suitable 
climate, rigidly careful hygiene, and judicious medical treatment. 

" I would further say that I have seen enough of the results of the 
climate at Atlantic City to satisfy me that it acts powerfully in most 
cases as a dry and bracing climate. Many cases of incipient phthisis, 
and even phthisis in the second stage, have been greatly and perma- 
nently benefited by a residence there under a strict rule of living and 
treatment. In several cases of chronic pleurisy with marked atony 
of the skin and system, and retarded absorption of the morbid products, 
I have seen the removal to Atlantic City soon followed by rapid im- 
provement. I am referring to this climate as I have observed it at all 
seasons of the year. And in respect particularly to that which I have 
just mentioned, the element of relaxation of the skin, which is 
common to so many diseases and is so powerfully conducive to re- 
newed attacks of congestion or inflammation, I have observed excel- 
lent results from the stimulating dry air of Atlantic City. 

"In retarded convalescence from acute diseases, and in conditions 
of impaired nervous tone, I have also found its climate very valuable. 
On the other hand, in the majority of cases of organic heart disease 
and of bronchial asthma, the results of residence at Atlantic City have 
not been favorable. 

"It is unquestionably an admirable climate, and I am convinced 
that if those who resort to it would but observe with sufficient pa- 
tience and minuteness the necessary precautions, they would for the 
most part avoid the bad effects that some have experienced, and would 



i7 

find it highly beneficial in the conditions I have above mentioned, as 
well as in others to which I have no time to allude. 

" Yours very truly, 

"WILLIAM PEPPER. 
"Dr. Boardman Reed, 

Atlantic City, N J." 

In commenting on the foregoing letter Dr. Reed said : 
{t My experience as a resident physician coincides in the main per- 
fectly with that of Dr. Pepper as above recorded ; but with regard 
to asthma, it has happened to me to see a majority of cases do well 
at Atlantic City, though with some few the climate has manifestly 
disagreed. One prominent railroad man who suffers much from 
asthma when inland, spent the whole of last winter here with entire 
relief." 

AN ENTHUSIASTIC TRIBUTE AT AN EARLY DAY. 

The following are extracts from a letter written in 1873 Dv Dr. W. 
V. Keating, a distinguished Philadelphia physician, to Mr. D. M. 
Zimmerman : 

"Some fifteen years since I visited Atlantic City, and, with many 
others,* I was struck with the peculiarity of its position, the distinc- 
tive characteristics of its climate, the singular dryness of atmosphere, 
rendering it in many respects one of the most lovely, salubrious cli- 
mates I have ever visited. 

" From careful observations, made for several consecutive years, 
I have noticed that during the months of June, July, August and Sep- 
tember, the prevailing wind at Atlantic City is south by west. Situ- 
ated in a cove, with a large area of dry, sandy, and thickly timbered 
land to the south-west, it seems as if the prevailing sea-breeze lost 
much of its humidity in passing over this thickly-wooded and sandy 
country, with no fresh water to counteract its effects before reaching 
the town. The same condition exists also in reference to the north- 
east winds, which, when they prevail, I have noticed, are much less 
keen and much less humid than with us, lasting sometimes forty-eight 
hours at the shore without bringing a drop of rain, whilst at the same 
time the same wind is attended with great dampness and heavy rain 
in our city and environs. 

" This peculiarly characteristic dryness of the atmosphere and of 
the sea breezes, however it may be accounted for, is patent to all who 
have ever sojourned at Atlantic City, and is the distinctive feature 

* "Among the many eminent medical men who have endorsed my views I am 
proud to name the late Prof. Jackson, of the University of Pennsylvania, whose far- 
seeing eye and keen judgment caused him, in 1859, to state to me that he consid- 
ered the atmospheric condition of Atlantic City one of the most peculiar in the 
country, and that it would, in time, become available in the treatment of many 
diseases. 
2 



iS 

of the place to which I attribute its great advantage over every other 
sea-bathing place on the coast. The time will come when some more 
exact and satisfactory explanation will be given of the phenomenon, 
which I now claim as affording to invalids all the invigoration from 
a seashore residence, without the usually accompanying humidity so 
aggravating to many diseases. 

"This remarkable dryness of climate,* resembling in this respect 
more the characteristics of Nice, on the Mediterranean, than any 
seacoast I have ever visited, is the characteristic of the climate of 
Atlantic City, which affords relief and cure to all cases of rheumatic 
fever and arthritis, even in the most acute stages. I know of many 
instances in which invalids, after having recourse, without benefit, to 
the various mineral waters and baths in the country, have there been 
entirely cured by a summer sojourn. 

" I have ventured to send patients there in the height of an attack of 
rheumatic gout, in the months of May and June, who have had com- 
plete amelioration of all their symptoms within forty-eight hours of 
their residence, provided they located themselves as near the ocean 
as possible, so as to avoid the land breezes. 

"To another class of cases, also, I am con vinced % that Atlantic 
City offers relief, if not positive cure, which cannot be obtained on 
any other portion of our seacoast. I allude to those trying and re- 
fractory cases of chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, incipient tuber- 
culosis, and scrofula. I must add that in the last two years I have 
been in the habit of sending patients, even in the more advanced 
stages of tuberculosis and scrofula, with marked benefit. All medical 
men are familiar with the fact that the above class of cases can sel- 
dom venture upon a sojourn at the seaside on account of the damp- 
ness, the distinctive feature of such a location, a peculiar condition 
most apt to aggravate the diseases in question, and considered by 
some of our best observers as one of the atmospheric conditions most 
to be feared by those threatened with pulmonary complaints. 

" In this respect again Atlantic City offers a striking analogy with 
Nice, where, it is well known, all the invalids of Europe (affected 
with chest diseases) flock for a winter's resort. 

"It is difficult to estimate the immense advantages resulting to in- 
valids suffering from pulmonary and scrofulous affections, being able 
to obtain all the benefits accruing from the invigoration and improved 
digestion of a seaside residence, without the usual pernicious accom- 

* " In the year 1871 I went to Atlantic City in the month of March, and whilst 
visiting Mr. Metzger's cottage, on Connecticut Avenue, then close to the ocean, ask- 
ing to light a cigar, he opened a drawer of a wash-stand and found a lucifer match, 
which had been there since the cottage had been closed in October. The slightest 
friction caused it to ignite at once. Visitors are all well conversant with the fact 
that their wearing apparel never becomes limp under the influence of the sea- 
breeze, nor their boots and shoes covered with mildew, as in all the other seaside 
resorts on our coast. 



19 

paniment of excessive dampness, which relaxes the system and predis- 
poses to a general catarrhal condition. 

• ••••••••»» 

" What a precious boon will it be to the invalids of our country if, 
without the necessity of exposing themselves to a long sea-voyage, 
they can find in their own native land all the variations of climate 
and hygienic conditions conducive to their restoration to health, or 
the amelioration of their sufferings ! " 

FURTHER ADVANTAGES OF ATLANTIC 
CITY AS A SANITARIUM. 

" ^Certain partisans of Florida and Minnesota last winter engaged 
in a spirited controversy concerning the merits of those regions re- 
spectively, as resorts for consumptives in winter. Since these cli- 
matic extremes were each setting forth its claims so earnestly in the 
New York Medical Journal, it occurred to the writer that the many 
marked advantages of Atlantic City ought to be placed before the 
readers of the same publication. Hence an article entitled 'What At- 
lantic City can do for Consumptives,' was prepared and appeared in 
the number for March, 1881. The following portions are deemed 
worthy of being reproduced in this pamphlet : 

" It does not seem necessary to decide in favor of either Florida or 
Minnesota — the extreme south or extreme north — as the only proper 
residence for such patients in the winter season. Professor Bennett, 
in his work on ' Pulmonary Consumption,' expresses a sentiment on 
this point, which, though Dr. Kenworthy has quoted it, appears 
scarcely to help his case. It is this: 'Now that medical doctrines 
have changed, that vitalistic and sthenic views of treatment prevail, 
ai J are found to give infinitely more satisfactory results than those 
that followed antiphlogistic treatment, the medical mind in America 
and Europe looks about for a colder climate. As usual, the pendulum 
has a tendency to pass to the other extreme ; to go from Madeira, 
Jamaica, and Barbadoes, from Havana, Florida, and Nassau, to the 
ice-covered summits of the Swiss mountains, to the frozen plains of 
Northern America. Many minds can never constitutionally accept 
and follow the golden adage, " Medio tutissimus ibis ; " they cannot 
remain in the middle of the road ; they must pass from one extreme 
to the other.' 

" Evidently Professor Bennett considers Florida and Minnesota 
as extremes, and would give the preference to some middle region. 
Atlantic City, N. J., situated in latitude 39 22', is just about midway 
between the peninsula of Florida and the ' frozen plains of Northern 
America,' and may therefore claim to be the 'golden mean.' It is 

* "Atlantic City as a Winter Health Resort," by Boardman Reed, M. D., Phila- 
delphia, 1SS1. 



20 

rapidly growing in favor as a winter resort for many classes of in- 
valids. It has one of the driest and most equable climates on the 
coast, has better hotel accommodations than can be found in either 
Florida or Minnesota, and is so accessible to the New England and 
Middle States that a trip hither is neither a serious undertaking nor a 
finality involving a complete cutting adrift from home, friends, and 
physicians, with the prospect of dying among strangers if the climate 
should not suit. 

" Tnere are many patients who are drifting into phthisis as the re- 
sult of a general break-down following excessive devotion to business 
or pleasure. These may not care and do not need to expatriate 
themselves for half the year. They may often do perfectly well at 
home, provided they avoid all excesses and have the best possible 
medical treatment ; but, their vital forces being at a low ebb, they 
need occasionally the stimulus to be derived from a few weeks' sojourn 
in some invigorating seaside climate, where it is not so cold as to keep 
them in-doors, and yet not so warm as to relax their tissues and still 
further debilitate them. It is this class of phthisical cases, and nu- 
merous other affections resulting from nervous exhaustion, that we see 
most of here, and find to receive most benefit from the climate. 

" Through the courtesy of Sergeant E. B. Garriott, the observer 
in charge of the signal station in New York, some statistics of the 
weather in that city during the three spring months of the year 1880 
have been obtained, and in the following table are compared with the 
corresponding figures for Atlantic City, furnished by the observer 
here : 





Mean 
Temperature. 


Rainfall in 
Inches. 




March, j88o. 


34-o 
40.1 

49.0 
49-3 

65.0 
63.1 


466 




5-97 
338 




April, iS8o. 




1.83 




May, 1880. 


0.82 




c.54 









" From this table it will be seen that the temperature during March 
averaged six degrees higher here than in New York City ; in April it 
was only slightly higher ; and in May, when New York began to ex- 
perience its foretaste of the summer heats, it averaged cooler in At- 



21 

lantic City. The rainfall was less here in April and May, though a 
little greater during March, than in New York. 

" During the entire year ended June 30th, 1879, t' ie amount of 
rainfall in New York was 43.68 inches, as against only 40.6 inches at 
Atlantic City. Taking a series of years, the rainfall in New York 
City is found to average only a little more than at Atlantic City, 
though greatly less than at most seaside stations. For instance, dur- 
ing the two years ended June 30th, 1879, there were ^S- 02 inches 
of rainfall at Wilmington, N. C, 108.04 inches at Newport, R. I., 
103.73 inches at Jacksonville, Fla., 86.36 inches at New York, and 
only 83.5 inches at Atlantic City. 

"If it were desirable to prolong this article, I could cite numerous 
cases of consumption which have been markedly benefited by a winter's 
residence here. I can recall several persons who came here a few 
years ago with chronic cough and evidences of consolidation in part 
of one lung, and, having experienced decided improvement, have re- 
mained ever since, winter and summer. The disease in these cases 
seems to be arrested. The majority of such patients here are from 
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, but within the last two or three years 
I have seen many consumptives from New York, as well as from Bos- 
ton and other cities of New England. Some who came in the last 
stage found no benefit, but nearly all who have come while the disease 
was yet in an early stage, or, if further progressed, was pursuing a slow 
and chronic course, gained, at least, for a time. 

" One notable case is that of a New York merchant who spent last 
winter here. After having had several hemorrhages and become con- 
siderably emaciated, he came here early in November, with instruc- 
tions from his physicians to proceed farther south as soon as the 
weather grew too cold for him. He remained all winter, walking out 
almost daily, and returned to New York in the spring to resume his 
business, greatly improved in health. 

HYGIENIC HINTS AND SANITARY PRE- 
CAUTIONS. 

In an article contributed to the Philadelphia Medical Bulletin, for 
November, 1880, the same writer thus alluded to some important hy- 
gienic considerations: 

" The matter of diet here is not so important in winter as in sum- 
mer. Errors in this respect are not then apt to be followed by such 
serious consequences. But it is safe to counsel all invalids to restrain 
the prodigious appetite they are almost sure to acquire soon after 
coming. Otherwise, constipation, headaches, and loss of appetite 
eventually result, showing that an overloaded stomach and embar- 
rassed liver have struck work. 

"It is a mistake to suppose that one cannot take cold at the sea- 
shore. 



22 

" It is necessary, then, that invalids here should take the usual pre- 
cautions against being chilled. In the winter season, and on summer 
evenings, wraps of some kind are always in order out of doors, though 
usually they need not be heavy. 

"As to exercise, while some is needed by the weakest invalids, 
even though only of a passive kind, such as massage by a manipulator, 
or rubbing by an ordinary attendant after the bath, there is commonly 
little danger that those able to walk shall not get enough. Many are 
inclined to take too much, owing to the extraordinary stimulant ef- 
fects of the air, and need to be restrained, lest they exhaust their small 
stock of vitality as fast as it can be replenished. But this tendency 
is far less in winter than in summer, when the nightly hops and other 
multitudinous pleasures and dissipations keep the more impressionable 
visitors in a constant whirl of feverish excitement. 

" There is, at this season, a restful air about not only the select 
cottage boarding-houses, but also the largest hotels, even when 
crowded as they are in February and March with the elite of the great 
cities. The tired brain-workers and exhausted devotees of fashion, 
equally with the convalescents and more chronic invalids, having 
come to rest and recuperate, go about it, generally, in a quiet, sen- 
sible way. 

"One word, finally, as to medicinal treatment. For some cases 
the air alone is sufficient. Others get on famously with the air and 
the help of judicious bathing. Still others need medicines, and lose 
by having them stopped during their stay at the seashore. For these 
last, the tonic and alterative virtues of the air often furnish just the 
adjuvants necessary to accomplish the cure. The medicines which 
at home were nugatory or only half successful may succeed perfectly 
with the aid of the sea-air, when neither, alone, would be sufficient." 

THE SUMMER CLIMATE OF ATLANTIC 

CITY. 

Since Atlantic City has become celebrated as a winter resort, some 
of its new friends imagine that the weather must be excessively warm 
in summer. It is sufficient on this head to say that for twenty years 
the place was known and patronized almost exclusively as a refuge 
from the summer heat of the great cities, and that still its summer 
patronage is tenfold greater than that during the winter and spring. 
The mean temperature for July, 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1882, was 
72.4 ; for August in the same years 72.0. 

There are upwards of four hundred hotels and boarding-houses in 
Atlantic City, and they are rarely otherwise than full at the midsum- 
mer season. 




ATLANTIC CITY 



AS A 



^^INTER J^ESORT 



Comprising Mftf.orological Statistics concerning; Temperature, 

Humidity, Amount of Rainfall, etc. ; Compiled from 

Official Reports and Local Observations of 

the United States Signal Service. 



Also the Sanitary and Social Features of Atlantic City; its 
Hotels and Other Attractions ; Testimonials of Prominent 
Physicians as to the Value of the Climate; Sugges- 
tions to Invalids regarding Hygiene, etc., etc. 



by b. a. blundon, 



Sergeant Signal Set-vice, U S. A. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

LINEAWEAVER AND WALLACE, PRINTERS, 
No. 32 South Fourth Street. 






J. fk 



Q</Yf'£ 



